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I use ghost blade solely for escape, but again this usually depends on the team I'm fighting and who I'm playing with. After a half dozen kills and silencing the entire team for several team fights, I'm usually pretty high up on the priority list

That said, it's probably not a necessity. It does have a lot of other uses aside from escape including crazy ganks and positioning.

I guess i never build it because a lot of matches seem to be lop sided one way or another. Its over in 20 min one way or the other. The few games that go 45 min + I always seem to struggle with what to build next. When to sell the cheap items from the begining of the game and when to upgrade into what. 250+ games and i am still a total noob

That Drow rocked our world last night. I started off slow as Doombringer but once I got my Radiance things started moving. We pushed into their base, took out every mid turret there was, but because their Drow got so farmed she literally killed everyone (including me) in 5 or less shots. It was ridiculous. And of course I couldn't ult her because she'd always pop her Manta before engaging so I never knew which one was the right one. More than once I ulted on a clone.

I've noticed some bugs/tricks? with Manta, where if you were attacking the target (right clicking) and the target pops manta, you will not switch to the clone but continue to attack the real one unless you right click something else.

Not sure if this is intentional or just luck, but I've seen it happen at least a half dozen times.

DD and I had a terrible match last night. I ended up with pugna who i hate soooo much. Half of us randomed and the other team picked troll characters. Huskar, Crystal, Night Stalker, Mirana, Lifestealer. Think it was like 55 - 23 by the end. UGH

Totally agree on the ragey friend thing. It's like a disease. Plus if they're raging they don't listen to communication or teamwork a lot of the time. And they probably get reported a lot so they make it take longer to get in a game when you're grouped with them.

Yeah... I should be jumping into TeamSpeak. I will make more of an effort (which is to say I right now I have been making no effort).

I also love tree man... Probably my favourite hero. I think Wisp would be up there as well if I could play with people who understand when I tell them, "We are going on an adventure you and I", they wouldn't TP away from me... Or run away from me... Adventures are so sad alone.

Not sure if you know this, but I guess there's a little trick with wisp. You can tp to base, and then if you buy and cast a tp scroll, but then cancel it before it finishes, you can stay at base. Or anywhere else you teleport to, as long as you have a scroll on you.

Not sure if you know this, but I guess there's a little trick with wisp. You can tp to base, and then if you buy and cast a tp scroll, but then cancel it before it finishes, you can stay at base. Or anywhere else you teleport to, as long as you have a scroll on you.

Played Lina last night, I like the change to her E being a passive based on spells cast and not a self casted ability. Makes sense.

That said, I knew the game would be a crapshoot when the Chaos Knight in my lane wanted me to initiate with my stun and harass in lane pushing the minion wave with my Q... I'm Lina... Stun the target, I'll burst them down + stun and I'll give you the last hit... Is that too much to ask?

The game actually looked like we could have won it at one point, but then, like most games with players who don't really understand simple concepts, the whole team decided to sit and farm the jungle and play passive for 20 minutes. That might work sometimes, but when the Phantom Assassin that I've been shutting down all game gets 20 minutes to catch up, the revenge she had on me was bitter sweet.

Not sure if you know this, but I guess there's a little trick with wisp. You can tp to base, and then if you buy and cast a tp scroll, but then cancel it before it finishes, you can stay at base. Or anywhere else you teleport to, as long as you have a scroll on you.

Handy little trick.

Would the trick not be an...exploit?

Not sure about that. You're basically interrupting one spell with another. I suppose it depends on whether they want to allow that style of play. It's kind of like blocking creeps. I'm sure there are a lot of little tricks that are in that gray area of maybe "not intended" but I wouldn't know without asking them. It's not some ridiculous advantage, it just allows you to escape without going back in 12 seconds to get pounded by a gank.

Xerofayte wrote:

Found out last night that if Spirit Breaker Ults and you use your boots of travel, he comes with got my face mauled right when i landed

I was in a game with Tzi a couple weeks back where he was Spirit Breaker. He did this same thing, except that it took him back to the fountain. It didn't go so well for him.

ive seen huskar ult and follow someone who force staffed away, but it was just perfect timing. i didnt see him in the location i left from. I finished the teleport and was instantly stunned and beat down. looking back it was funny, but at the time it made me angry

Yeah, it depends on when SB ults you. Since once it hits it'll stun you in place and he teleports to you, this would have cancelled your teleport. He must have cast it just as the spell was completing and followed with you. Really just good timing.

It's interesting though, because most (all?) spells break if you turn invisible, or blink away. It's interesting teleport isn't treated the same. May honestly be a bug, but I can't remember how teleport was handled in WC3 DoTA.

Yeah, it depends on when SB ults you. Since once it hits it'll stun you in place and he teleports to you, this would have cancelled your teleport. He must have cast it just as the spell was completing and followed with you. Really just good timing.

I saw it happen while spectating. I'll set the scene.

They were teamfighting under the enemy tower. SB did his charge to try to come up on them but realized that his team was getting stomped and the turret was going down. So he stopped his charge in the river and came up behind Xero. Just as Xero popped his boots of travel, SB came up the stairs behind him. Seing this, he sat there for a second until he knew that his ult would cause him to go with Xero and popped it. It was beautifully timed.

Yeah maskof madness is a necessity on him. If you notice them focusing you, immediately diverting to a bkb can fix those stuns.

And that is pretty impressive if he actually waited and timed the ult so that he would travel with you. I think SB might differ from Huskar's ult on this, but maybe not. It would be fun to test it out. We should get a list of things to try and make bot matches to test them out.

Yesterday before bed I had the Dota 2 itch and decided to play a game. I randomed like I always do in all pick and got Anti-Mage. I bought a ring of health at level 1 (the 875 gold one), and proceeded to farm bottom lane with Rorick against a Bounty Hunter that no one ever decided to help.

We won the game, I ended 7-1-7 and felt very dirty. Anti-Mage left alone with farm is so very OP. The only time I died is when my half asleep brain thought it would be an excellent idea to dive past two towers into three people. I would have got away too if I didn't blink in, get tree'd, stunned, and sun striked before my 5 second blink could come off cool down.

Will pay for team that actually stays until the end of a freakin match. Or even a team that speaks English. I'm not hard to get along with here.

Also, wtb team that actually plays as a damn team. Deuce, Xero, and I kept getting the most retarded (and I don't use that term lightly) teammates. It was enough to make me want to stop playing. 10+ matches in a row of the shittiest teammates I've ever seen is enough to put me off the game for a while.

Where do you guys find these people lol... I wonder if it's because of the hours I am usually on?

I think our problem is we're playing prime time, when all the little kiddies are at home tired from going around fingering each other's bums and decide they want to go play terribly and laugh at each other.

Clearly we have to group up more! I played 4 or 5, 2-3 wins the other two or so were horrible losses.

One of the wins I was Visage. Just wanted to try him out since it's been forever. Yeah, he's even more different than the last time I played him. Fairly weak early on, but once I got the gargoyles he actually became pretty useeful. And when our team grouped up? It was an insane boon to me and the team. We just started clicking, and completely demolished the other team. Riki was on fire, and as long as he was doing insane damage I could nuke the next guy and get him started early, then slow and maybe drop a gargoyle on them to stun if I needed to.

I felt bad, they just couldn't escape at all, we were crushing them in their fountain, but at least it didn't last long.

Yeah my friend played Visage and grabbed the item that also cripples on cast... It was very entertaining to see the enemy Riki pop up to try and kill me, and get slowed forever. Said friend was really bad with the minion stuns, but played right they are really awesome. Also, everyone seems to underestimate the amount of damage those fresh minions can cause.

Good point. Maybe he is most effective when be swoops in for a kill and then has time to regenerate bus cloak and gargoyle damage.

I would say one downside is that he is very dependent on teamwork and/or the ability of your team to the kick ass while he is around. Somewhat support-ish when I you think of it that way for sure.

I suppose the counter is if you were just insanely good with him. Something I doubt I could pull off. I was practically not there until I got level 6. I had virtually no last hits, and was with another ranged against two strength melee. We were both too weak to prevent them from free farming bottom lane. Once I got the ult and one more person showed up to gank them, we basically pushed their bottom lane all the way to their ancient without leaving after that, slaughtering anyone who got in our way over and over.

I played Naga Siren last night, she's different but man is she ever strong. I could blame the loss on my team but really, focusing on my own faults, I cost us the game, got to cocky, and their OD knew to focus me and disable me. Two big events and right after I knew I played them wrong. I'd pop my images too soon, hold onto my ult too long, things like that. It was still fun, great hero, but I need to play her more. Their OD really hard carried as I shut down 3 of their heroes all game.

That's Dota though, it's why I love it. I know what I did wrong, next time I play I'll be able to adjust to it and be that much better. That one key player on the other team, he was the issue and I really didn't realize it in time.

All that said, Naga Siren is so very very funny vs. lycan. Oh you want to BKB, nope, net, stay put little doggy. Oh you want to run away? Ulted, now lets just wait out that wolf shall we?

Next game, also a loss, I got Fuzzy Wuzzy in a random (Ursa), buy items to jungle. Guy picks Natures Prophet right after and calls the jungle... Rest of the team picks all carries. Which in theory is fine, but the other team had Lich, and 2 carries on bottoms vs Lich + PA doesn't end well for the 2 carries.

I knew that Naga would be a good counter for Lycan! That's incredibly important, since it seems like (at least in most captain's mode games I play) he is one of the first characters banned usually.

I haven't had a chance to play Naga myself outside of a bot match, but I'm looking forward to it. The images make her more tanky as an agility carry, and then you always have your ult to escape if things aren't going so well. Obviously it's better used setting up a team battle or preventing enemies from escaping, but it's nice that it has many uses.

I'm torn so often... I know for some heroes I'll buy that early 800-1000 item and just start with nothing until I get that gold. Usually I'll have the money by the time the minions get to lane anyways, but I feel like I'm giving up a solid advantage. In Dota 2 unlike League, 6 cheap items can be as strong or stronger than 1 moderately expensive item.